6. Silenus.—Silenus, according to the common tradition, was an old satyr who tended and brought up Dionysus, and afterwards became the faithful companion of his wanderings. He is depicted by the poets as a somewhat elderly man, with blunt nose and bald head, hairy chest and thighs, and a stomach so large that he can scarcely walk. He generally appears riding on an ass in front of the Bacchic company, with a satyr on either side supporting his half-drunken form.
The artists of antiquity seem to have devoted themselves frequently to the subject of Silenus. They either represented him as the nurse and preceptor of the youthful Bacchus, holding the child in his arms and regarding him with a look of affection, in which the comic element is entirely lacking, or they present him to us as the insatiable but good-natured wine-bibber. His standing attribute is the wine-skin, besides which, like other members of the Bacchic train, he bears a thyrsus and ivy garland.
Besides Silenus, who was celebrated as the preceptor of Dionysus, there was a whole tribe of Sileni. Whether this is due to the fact that the older satyrs were called Sileni, or whether they form a special class of deities presiding over the flowing, gushing water, cannot be determined with any certainty.
Among the Sileni were two personages who play a part in the story of Dionysus. These were Marsyas and Midas. The former, like all satyrs, was an accomplished master of the flute, and challenged Apollo to a trial of skill which proved fatal to him. The conditions of the contest were that he who was vanquished should put himself entirely in the power of his adversary. Apollo won, and made a cruel use of his victory by hanging Marsyas on a pine tree and flaying him alive.
Midas was the mythic founder of the kingdom of Phrygia, in Asia Minor, whither he had emigrated from Macedonia. Tradition makes him a son of Cybele, and, as her favourite, endowed with fabulous wealth. But, like many of the sons of men in the present day, the richer he grew the greater was his thirst for gold, until it betrayed him at length into an act of great folly. One day, the drunken Silenus strayed from the company of Bacchus into the garden of Midas. The latter received him with great hospitality, and after entertaining him sumptuously for ten days brought him to Bacchus. Pleased with his kindness, the god rewarded him with the gratification of any wish he might make. Midas now wished that everything he touched might turn to gold. Naturally the gratification of this wish well-nigh proved his ruin; and he only escaped by washing, at the command of the god, in the river Pactolus, which has ever since washed down gold in its sands. A later fable makes Midas the judge in the rivalry of Apollo and Pan, on which occasion he decided in favour of the latter, for which the god changed his ears into those of an ass. Modern criticism has seen in the rich Midas one of the many personifications of the sun, who, as he rises over the earth, turns all things to gold.
7. Greek and Roman Wood-Spirits.—1. Pan.—Pan was a very ancient god of the woods and meadows. He was at first honoured only by the inhabitants of the mountain-land of Arcadia and by other pastoral tribes. Subsequently his divinity was more generally acknowledged and more highly esteemed. Common accounts make him the son of Hermes by the nymph Penelope, a daughter of Dryops. His mother was not a little terrified at his birth, since he was hairy all over, and had horns and goat’s feet. His father wrapped him in a hare-skin, and bore him to Olympus, where the assembled gods showed no small pleasure at the sight of the strange little wood-demon. From time immemorial Pan was regarded by the shepherds of Greece as their most doughty protector; for which reason the mountain caves in which they gathered their herds together at night, or in threatening weather, were held sacred to him. There were many such caves of Pan in the mountains of Arcadia, and also one at the foot of the Acropolis at Athens, besides others on Mount Parnassus in Bœotia, and elsewhere. Pan was esteemed a god of great cheerfulness and activity of character, who loved to range the woods as a huntsman, and was on this account regarded with little less veneration by huntsmen than by shepherds. He was also looked on as the patron of fishing and bee-keeping.
As the god of shepherds, Pan was also a lover of music, and on returning in the evening from the chase, says the Homeric story, he was wont to play sweet tunes on his pan-pipe (Syrinx), whilst the Oreads, or mountain-nymphs, sang the praises of the gods and led off their spirited dances. The poets have founded a story on his discovery of the Syrinx. They invented a fabulous nymph called Syrinx, with whom Pan was supposed to have fallen violently in love. The nymph, however, did not return his affection, and fled from his embraces. Pan pursued her, and in her extremity she sought the aid of Gæa, who transformed her into a reed. Out of this reed Pan, by joining seven pieces together, made an instrument which he called the Syrinx, after the nymph.
Pan was as passionately fond of dancing as of music. According to Pindar, he was the most accomplished dancer among the gods. His favourite amusement was to dance in company with the mountain-nymphs, on which occasions he regaled them with every kind of droll leap, in the performance of which his goat’s feet stood him in good stead.
As a wood-deity, Pan also possessed the gift of prophecy; indeed, according to some, it was he who first imparted this gift to Apollo. He certainly had a very ancient oracle at Acacesium in Arcadia.
Wild mountainous country and the thick untrodden forest are both alike apt to impress the lonely traveller with feelings of awe. All such sensations of sudden and unaccountable fear were ascribed to Pan (Panic). He was also said to delight in terrifying travellers with all kinds of strange noises. Hence, at a later period, arose the story that in the contest with the Titans he rendered good service to Zeus by blowing on a shell trumpet which he had invented, whereupon the Titans were seized with a sudden terror. This, however, is only another version of Triton’s services at the battle with the giants. It is well known that the Athenians introduced the worship of Pan, to which they had been hitherto strangers, into their city after the battle of Marathon, in consequence of the assistance which they believed they had received from the god.